How well did Kentucky take care of the basketball?

Louisville came into Saturday leading the nation in turnover margin. The Cards were forcing an average of 21 turnovers per game. So obviously taking care of the basketball had to be a Kentucky key. And for the first 11 minutes, the Cats committed just one turnover.

John Calipari’s team committed six turnovers over the last nine minutes of the first half and trailed 38-26 at halftime. The Cats committed eight turnovers in the second half of what turned out to be an 80-77 loss. Louisville outscored UK on fast break points 20-2.

In the end, however, Kentucky’s 15 turnovers missed by one matching the season-low by an opponent against Louisville this year. Duke and Florida International both turned it over just 14 times. But given the number of possessions, Kentucky actually turned it over on fewer possessions than did Florida International, ranking just behind Duke.

You have to go back to Derrick Jasper in the 2008 NCAA Tournament against Marquette to find a UK guard who played more minutes without a turnover. Jasper went 40 minutes without turning it over that game.